Press Council rules on RSA complaint

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The Press Council has upheld a complaint from the Foxton RSA on the grounds that portraying historic events as though they were current was unfair to the association.

On August 30 The Dominion Post published an article headlined " ‘Short shorts' add to RSA tensions".

Its opening read, "Complaints of bullying and intimidation continue at Foxton RSA after a member who objected to a young woman wearing ‘short shorts' had a dismembered chicken dumped in her letterbox".

The incident referred to took place around August 2011; some of the other incidents cited were also historic.

The Press Council was concerned that the report failed to identify, at least with any clarity, that so many of the incidents cited occurred about a year before. In this it misled readers, and was unfair to the Foxton RSA.

An additional complaint about a lack of balance was rejected.

The Press Council was satisfied that several members of the club were dissatisfied with the executive and that their substantive criticisms were put to the RSA's spokesperson, who was given considerable space in a short report for her countering views.